We study the Bishop-Phelps-BollobÃ¡s property (BPBp for short)
for compact operators. We present some abstract techniques which
allows to carry the BPBp for compact operators from sequence
spaces to function spaces. As main applications, we prove the
following results. Let $X$, $Y$ be Banach spaces. If $(c_0,Y)$
has the BPBp for compact operators, then so do $(C_0(L),Y)$ for
every locally compact Hausdorff topological space $L$ and $(X,Y)$
whenever $X^*$ is isometrically isomorphic to $\ell_1$.
If $X^*$ has the Radon-NikodÃ½m property and $(\ell_1(X),Y)$
has the BPBp for compact operators, then so does $(L_1(\mu,X),Y)$
for every positive measure $\mu$; as a consequence, $(L_1(\mu,X),Y)$
has the the BPBp for compact operators when $X$ and $Y$ are finite-dimensional
or $Y$ is a Hilbert space and $X=c_0$ or $X=L_p(\nu)$ for any
positive measure $\nu$ and $1\lt p\lt \infty$.
For $1\leq p \lt \infty$, if $(X,\ell_p(Y))$ has the BPBp for compact
operators, then so does $(X,L_p(\mu,Y))$ for every positive measure
$\mu$ such that $L_1(\mu)$ is infinite-dimensional. If $(X,Y)$
has the BPBp for compact operators, then so do $(X,L_\infty(\mu,Y))$
for every $\sigma$-finite positive measure $\mu$ and $(X,C(K,Y))$
for every compact Hausdorff topological space $K$.